Google is holding the I / O Developer Conference these days. Yesterday, he showed the capabilities of his new assistant, Google Assistant, along with other novelties of its -very wide- range of services.
The demonstration of the new assistant was speculative. If it does half of what they taught us, we are before the first assistant that can really be called like this: Assistant.
In the video we see how the assistant is able to book an appointment at a hairdresser, and how he naturally accepts not being able to book a table in a restaurant. Of course, the call does not appear to be made by artificial intelligence, and it is at this point that we want (I include myself) for these "entities" to be. If they look like a machine, it is that they are and it loses its grace. (I have put the video for you to start when Google Assistant calls).
My deep laziness in reserving things over the phone, like restaurants for dinner, may make me look at Google Assistant with better eyes. Even so, booking appointments for you is something that we can truly consider an "assistant"Well, there is a real interaction with a third party. Not everything is on the phone.
The new Google Assistant gives a twist to the naturalness of language, both comprehension and expression. All the artificial intelligence behind the assistant means that, even without understanding, he is able to muddle through naturally.
The rest of the news in the assistant, next to this, seem mere curiosities but they are things that we have been asking Apple with Siri for a long time. Now, Google Assistant is capable of answering several questions asked in the same sentence. Also, and this would be very important in Apple, he is able to appreciate if the announcer is addressing him or a person.
The eternal question is when it will arrive in Spain and if it will be able to perform this type of assistance on the iPhone, or if it will stick with a select group of Android devices. It seems confirmed that Google Home will arrive in Spain, making it one step closer to enjoying the Google assistant. Also, we know that Alexa will arrive, which will cause Siri to lose the little advantage it had in the world outside the US or English-speaking, the fact of being, practically, the only assistant there was.
These news from Google will have sat like a bucket of cold water on the heads of Apple executives who see them as their beloved Siri is falling far behind, despite all the advantage she had.
If so, it would be impressive
It will be necessary to see how it copes when the person who answers the phone does not have perfect vocalization or speaks with the different types of peculiarities that some dialects have within the same language
At the moment I see something very far away
It is apparently very accomplished. Siri is something that urgently needs to be improved. Even so, all that glitters will not be gold because Siri works in advertising that it seems like science fiction and the reality is quite another ...